Greg Rutherford Workout

Your Guide To A Perfect Legs Day, By World Champion Long-Jumper Greg Rutherford

Very few men like legs day. It hurts, it makes you walk funny and there's not a woman alive who ever went weak at the knees over the sight of a man's quads. The exception is Greg Rutherford, whose legs-day workouts were the springboard that launched him (quite literally) to glory at the World Athletics Championship today.

Rutherford first leapt to prominence at the London 2012 games, claiming gold in the long jump on the same day Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis topped the podium in their events. Also in the cabinet, Rutherford had European and Commonwealth gold medals, meaning that today's triumph makes him only the fourth British athlete to ever hold gold in all four competitions simultaneously.

So who better to give you a legs-day pep talk? Below Rutherford explains which exercises will lead to the best results for building strength and burning fat. He also tells you what to eat when your legs go to jelly after your workout – and he has a message for guys who skip legs day to do biceps, biceps and a bit more biceps.

AskMen: Nobody likes leg day – what are your best tips for motivating yourself?

Greg Rutherford: Interestingly,I only enjoy legs day! For my training, it's sort of vital and I've learned to love it, I think. We do other leg exercises as well, like power cleans and I actually quite like a leg press. We don't squat as much, but one thing I do which I love is called a box step-up. So instead of a squat I do a lot of that, I've put videos up of that every so often. It looks quite impressive when you're stepping up onto a box with, say, 250kg on my back – that's my PB. So motivating yourself, I think having big strong legs, that's pretty cool. Having a big VMOs [the teardrop-shaped muscle above your knee] is always nice. But, the thing is, when you see guys who are clearly gym junkies who only do bicep curls all day every day, and you see them walking down the street ...'Mate, what about the legs?'.

What are the best exercises to improve your legs training?

Yeah, I'd say box step-ups, power cleans as well, especially if you want to get fast, explosive. Any Olympic lifts, snatch or whatever, anything that's using legs and bum a lot. I think squats is a generic thing – you can do squats with anything. That's the great thing about it. As long as you get in a safe position to do it. You can do body squats if you're trying to do some circuit work, or if you haven't got access to a gym, pick up something a little bit heavier, hold it as close to your body as possible and do squats. They are simple to do, but make sure you're doing them in the right position, because you can injure your back otherwise. But for me, box step-ups and power clean is by far the best.

Are there any other things that you can do at home?

Yeah, nearly anything you need to get at the gym you can get naturally. For example, a lot of training I do is running up hills, running up steps, just in the woods behind my house. Jumping on to things. All these things you can do anywhere, you don't have to go to the gym. [See proof, below]

What about sets and reps? What range would you recommend to the average gym goer, just looking to build strength or burn fat?

For getting lean and trying to get toned, it's not about having a low weight and maximising as many reps as possible. When we do, say, a box step-up for example I'll do five sets of four on each leg. And then if we're doing cleans maybe, what I did two days ago was eight sets of two at 90k, so it's relatively comfortable, but it's all fast, explosive work. Doing that sort of stuff, with hill training and everything else, it helps you get really lean and quite muscular as well.

So it's less about the lower weight for longer, more about the higher weight...

For less, absolutely. Without a doubt.

Are you a grunter in the squat rack or is that unacceptable just gym etiquette?

No, I'm not a grunter, I'm relatively quiet. There's a little bit of breathing out. Some people get really loud! There's a little bit of psyching up sometimes, if you're going for a really heavy weight you might make a little noise, but when lifting, I try and keep it quite quiet – I'm not a fan of male noise in that way to be totally honest. I think when girls do it it's not as bad, but when guys do it it's just like, 'Come on mate, hold it in!'

Probably the biggest thing around not training correctly is eating. You've got to fuel your system correctly, and I think what we're very unfortunate with in this country is the [lack of] education around food and nutrition. It's way off the boil. If you believe some conspiracy theories you'll believe that governments and whatever else have been behind that for a long time. For example, for whatever reason, people aren't taught that sugar is a massive enemy. I mean it's lovely, it tastes great and believe me I enjoy it when I can, but people will go for a yoghurt and say, 'Oh I'll go for the one that says fat free on it.' What they don't realise is to still make that taste nice, it's injected with carbohydrates, which is sugar. Much better going for a full-fat natural yoghurt, which isn't going to be filling you with crap.

What's your favourite recovery meal when you've got jelly legs?

Good question... favourite post meal. I love cooking all different things, so any form of meat, fish, anything else. I do have a really strict diet, but it's all protein and veg basically. When you are on a diet like that you have to get inventive, so you have to be willing to try any different fish that's out there. Probably a favourite of mine is some baked trout fillets, on a salad. You can put any salad together, get as many different ingredients in it as possible. Chuck all that on, and that's what I quite enjoy.

Finally, what would be your message to those triangular guys with big shoulders and skinny legs?

Yeah, don't dedicate everything to your arms. Because I think the amount of people that are now noticing it and realising it, there's nothing wrong with having big legs and a big powerful bum. I think it's important, and you're not going to look so daft walking down the street. Split your workouts a little bit. You won't be wearing size 28 waist jeans, in the boys section, you'll be in the men's 34s and 36s!

Greg Rutherford was talking as part of #NikeMilers - challenging runners of all abilities to run their first, funnest or fastest mile. Visit nike.com/FindYourFastfor full details and to sign up to Nike+ Run Clubs and take on the Find Your Fast Challenges